It’s no secret that I am Christian, and I own my faith, yes faith, not religion. I was born into religion, when I questioned too hard I was asked to leave. Obviously religion did not work for me; faith does. A lot of Christians still have a difficult time separating religion, man made ordinances, from faith, God directed ordinances; so obviously non Christians would a difficult time in seeing the difference as well. That’s not what this blog is about today, perhaps another time, however today it’s about something a little different, but the same concept.

Religion will harshly rebuke any sin, some to the greatest lengths. Faith, well it teaches us something different, doesn’t it? We are called to LOVE the sinner and REBUKE the sin. Although you wont find one single verse in the bible that states it as I have, you will find the bible does tell us to rebuke the sin, but to love the sinner, it’s a matter of simply understanding the bible. I don’t have enough time, energy, or even space in one little blog to go about teaching someone how to simply understand the bible. I will try my best to give a small synopsis though. The closest you will come to finding what I have stated in the Bible is in Romans, more specific Romans 5:8, Romans 2:1-4, and Romans 12:9. Although I much prefer the Amplified version, I’ll post an easier version to read, The Good News Translation.

5 Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have[a] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 He has brought us by faith into this experience of God’s grace, in which we now live. And so we boast[b] of the hope we have of sharing God’s glory! 3 We also boast[c] of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, 4 endurance brings God’s approval, and his approval creates hope. 5 This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God’s gift to us.

6 For when we were still helpless, Christ died for the wicked at the time that God chose. 7 It is a difficult thing for someone to die for a righteous person. It may even be that someone might dare to die for a good person. 8But God has shown us how much he loves us—it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!9 By his blood[d] we are now put right with God; how much more, then, will we be saved by him from God’s anger! 10 We were God’s enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life! 11 But that is not all; we rejoice because of what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has now made us God’s friends.

2 Do you, my friend, pass judgment on others? You have no excuse at all, whoever you are. For when you judge others and then do the same things which they do, you condemn yourself.2 We know that God is right when he judges the people who do such things as these. 3 But you, my friend, do those very things for which you pass judgment on others! Do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or perhaps you despise his great kindness, tolerance, and patience. Surely you know that God is kind, because he is trying to lead you to repent.

9 Love must be completely sincere. Hate what is evil, hold on to what is good.

The last verse is probably one of my favorite verses ever to be told. Simply because if you go back and read the entire 12th chapter of Romans, you will read further that the only ones we should be judging is ourselves, and we should do so according to how God would judge us based on our services to God, and living to that of which we are called to be doing. This chapter in the bible has been a near and dear chapter for me through so many things in life. However, again this blog post isn’t about that currently, again, maybe another time. I just wanted to give some foundation to what I’m about to say.

While, I myself do not feel as if Phil Robertson went out and maliciously slandered an entire community as many are suggesting he did, I do feel that perhaps he was a tad bit on the harsh side. I also agree that this is a HUGE over reaction to a statement of personal belief to which he’s entitled to per the first amendment and was not at all a slander or put down to the LGBT community. Anyone who had even watched a partial of Duck Dynasty knows those boys are hard core gun loving, redneck, God fearing, outspoken Christians….. A&E/Disney knew exactly what they were doing and getting into by airing the show. I think both sides need to apologize for getting their panties in a fizzy.

In my opinion if media is okay with exposing children and families with the likes of Miley Cyrus, half naked, if not entirely naked, apparently doped up on something on stage grabbing a married mans private areas, then why the outcry over a man stating his PERSONAL beliefs? Phil didn’t put down anyone, he didn’t slander anyone, in fact if you watch or read the ENTIRETY of the interview in which this outcry comes from, then you will see that he further clarifies that.

If you are part of the #boycottae are you also boycotting all of the sister and parent stations from Hearst Corp, like Disney, History, Biography and Lifetime? What are you boycotting exactly? Think about it for a min. What will this boycott accomplish? Like I said don’t get me wrong, I agree that Phil did nothing wrong, and I agree that this is an over reaction on the part of the stations. How far are you willing to go for this cause? What will it get you? What will it change? Will it even change anything? I honestly, and sadly do not think so, because we live in a time, and an age, that if you don’t entirely and openly accept everything mainstream, then you are banned. Simple as that. Maybe this was a coo on the stations part to drum up publicity, to say, “Oh, well, Christians we gave you, your chance, and you blew it….” Is it working? I think so, who isn’t talking about A&E and Phil from Duck Dynasty right now?

I ask you one last question, how is this Christian? Love thy neighbor. Love all. Love the sinner. Hate the sin. Is this the American way? Tolerance? LGBT community preaches tolerance….. it’s okay to have tolerance, as long as it upholds your beliefs, views and ideology I guess, but not if it differs… Did I get that right? I love my LGBT friends, but I don’t love this attitude. I don’t have to agree with or love their lifestyle to love them. It’s not for me to judge. I simply love and accept them as I’m CALLED to do by God, what’s wrong with asking for it to be reciprocated? Can the LGBT community love and accept me if I don’t agree with them, even though I do love them? What is all of this really saying?

Simple, there is no tolerance on either side, because both sides have to be right, and both have to run main stream….. can’t have two cocks in the hen house, right? Maybe this is a good time that we ALL, Christian, non Christian, LGBT, non LGBT alike all start practicing what we are preaching; Love, Acceptance, Tolerance of different beliefs? Do we have to agree? Nope, but you wont find me judging or condemning another person, that’s not my job, and not my gift in the body of Christ; I just call it as I see it. A bunch of sinners being intolerant to everyone who differs in beliefs. We all bleed red don’t we? Then we are ALL sinners, everyone of us, because we are ALL born into sin. Every single one of us.